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Editorial No. 5

This is our final glossy editorial. Our final size 9 page 2 editorial. Of NSDF 19. The Festival. Who knows what the editorial will be in the zine Noff. It could be anything.

We keep looking at each other and wondering if we’ve forgotten to do something. We couldn't have anticipated what this year's festival would be. We both held notions of the week, an accumulated sense – formed from experience and anticipation – of what would lie ahead in each day. The sum: an abstraction of intensity, discussion, suspect lunches and unparalleled experiences of theatre.

The truth is that we haven't had the chance to see as many shows as most of you reading this have. Our sense of the selection has trickled in from the eyes and ears of our writers. And they've done an incredible job. They've worked immensely hard and we couldn't be prouder of the work they've written, the conversations they've started, and the ways in which they have pushed each other and themselves to think deeply and to write with the force and truthfulness you've been reading throughout the week.

On that note, we’d like to offer some thanks. To James, for bringing us on board after just a phone call on a slightly dodgy connection and a few emails. What we’ve been able to achieve with Noff this year is all down to you; in the words of Naomi you are ‘phenomenally helpful’, and she really doesn’t pile on the compliments. Thanks for letting us make so many jokes about us. And to Lizzie – thank you for your continued support, putting up with our sometimes slightly panicked requests. We owe Ellie, the entire management team, and countless others oodles of gratitude for all their hard work to make Noff happen. Thank you to Mark Shenton and Donna Munday for their tireless fundraising, and to all those who donated - this week has been magical and you’ve made it that.

Every single person who comes here to see and make art brings their own experiences. Noff has a mission to capture the thoughts and ideas of the festival, a festival only made possible by us all being here, together. It's pained us, as we've huddled round our planning whiteboard each morning, that there are only a finite number of pages in which we can conserve so many feelings. We'd love to have included every single piece we were sent.

In this issue our contributors respond to Rotterdam, Yen, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing and BARRY, as well as thinkpieces on criticism, the wise words of Simon Stephens and information from Donna Munday on how NSDF is funded.

The shows at this festival have probed and questioned us. They've moved us, made us laugh and question. Regardless of what we sum up as critics trying to condense, each one has created a unique experience, a something where there was nothing, and that shouldn’t ever be taken for granted. It’s a huge undertaking. A show of strength and courage.

Earlier in the week, we joked that the two of us would merge and conglomerate into one mass editor brain. We are now genuinely finishing each other’s sentences. It has happened. It’s time to wrap this baby up.